Random select value from complex array in php

Question

I have array like below

array(1) {
  ["data"]=>
  array(6) {
    [0]=>
    array(2) {
      ["name"]=>
      string(10) "Wang"
      ["id"]=>
      string(9) "500011929"
    }
    [1]=>
    array(2) {
      ["name"]=>

      string(17) "Singh"
      ["id"]=>
      string(9) "500033614"
    }
    [2]=>
    array(2) {
      ["name"]=>
      string(9) "Adam"
      ["id"]=>
      string(9) "5014177"
    }
    [3]=>
    array(2) {
      ["name"]=>
      string(23) "Siva"
      ["id"]=>
      string(9) "5036644"
    }
    [4]=>
    array(2) {
      ["name"]=>
      string(11) "Chu"
      ["id"]=>
      string(9) "5044111"
    }
    [5]=>
    array(2) {
      ["name"]=>

      string(18) "Matta"
      ["id"]=>
      string(9) "56657897"
   }
  }
}

I need to select randomly 2 value from this array I have tried with below code I am getting null.

$mylist = $facebook->api('/me/friends');
$rand_keys = array_rand($mylist , 2);
var_dump($mylist[$rand_keys[]]);

Please help me to solve this issue. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Try this instead:

$rand_keys = array_rand($mylist['data'], 2);
var_dump($mylist['data'][$rand_keys[0]]);
var_dump($mylist['data'][$rand_keys[1]]);

as just using a [] generally means you are adding a new index to the array.

If you want to loop it:

foreach ($rand_keys as $key) {
    var_dump($mylist['data'][$key]);
}

Should give you something to go off of.

EDIT

Just saw this was a multi-dimensional array contained in "data", see updated code above. Not sure if that is the issue, but seems like it is.

Answer 2

Hi Keeran,

Make use of the PHP's built-in function shuffle to do this easily

$my_friends = $facebook->api('/me/friends');
$temp= $my_friends ['data'];
shuffle($temp);
$mylist=  array_slice($temp,0,2);